Exempting Overtime Pay from State Income Taxes

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Alabama Representative Anthony Daniels is leading the way to enhance workforce participation, grow the state’s economy, and help hard-working families hold onto more of their hard-earned income. His innovative new law, passed this year with strong bipartisan support, exempts from income taxation any hours worked beyond 40 hours per week by hourly waged employees. Exempting the 5% state income tax on time-and-a-half pay helps struggling families, businesses dealing with labor issues, and will help stimulate local economies.

 

The measure empowers workers in all sectors (agriculture, law enforcement, service industries, etc.) to pursue overtime as an avenue to advancement and economic prosperity. The law also includes all sectors and businesses. Furthermore, it does not require employees to work overtime hours if they choose not to, nor does it alter the implementation of the Fair Labor Standards Act or change who is a full-time employee or a part-time employee.

 

Impact:

With no state minimum wage, Alabama workers have not seen a minimum wage increase in nearly 15 years and continue to earn $7.25 an hour. The overtime tax exemption is a step to help many deal with rising prices and costs. The law is effectively a one-year pilot program for 2024. Its success will be tracked through data collection. Employers, both public and private, will report to the Alabama Department of Revenue the amount of overtime paid to full-time hourly employees and the number of employees who received that pay. The program will identify through the analysis of aggregate data, the following:

 – Increased spending, or “replacement spending,” including at local businesses, by workers receiving income-tax-exempted overtime compensation.

 – Increased workforce participation in Alabama’s overall labor force participation rate, the proportion of the working-age population that is either working or actively looking for work, is 56.9%.

Credit Enhancement for Housing

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Hawaii Senator Stanley Chang introduced legislation that would leverage funds to boost existing housing production programs. Each year, the state allocates funds to the Rental Housing Revolving Fund (RHRF), providing $177,000 per unit for 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects. Specifically, the bill would:

 – Guaranty Fund: Part of RHRF serves as collateral, securing loans from private lenders.

 – Interest Rate Reduction: The state leverages credit for lower interest rates.

 – Funds Stay with the State: Funds remain with the state rather than being transferred to borrowers.

 

The aim is to multiply housing projects.

Impact:

Chang believes this legislation would enable three to four times as many housing projects while reducing risk and financial strain on the state. Given the current costs required to create one unit, reducing the impact of state subsidy per unit. This proposal will encourage the growth of the private lending industry rather than replace private sector lenders. Eventually, this will help create a critical mass of inexpensive housing.

ALOHA Homes

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Hawaii has long grappled with a severe housing shortage. Median home prices on Oahu, the most populous island, have soared to over $1.15 million for single-family homes and $515,000 for condos. This unattainable cost of living has driven many residents to leave Hawaii, resulting in seven consecutive years of statewide population decline and more Native Hawaiians living away from their homeland than within it.

 

Hawaii Senator Stanley Chang introduced The ALOHA Homes Program (Affordable Locally Owned Homes for All) which would promote more dense construction, sold exclusively to Hawaii residents. Key components of the ALOHA Homes Program include affordable down payment assistance, promoting socioeconomic diversity and simplifying eligibility, self-sustaining funding as the State recoups its investment through unit sales, and transit-oriented development.

Impact:

The ALOHA Homes program was signed into law as a pilot program in 2023. Chang hopes the program will create momentum for many more housing projects on state lands along the rail line, eventually creating the critical mass of inexpensive housing that will house Hawaii’s future population growth. The ALOHA Homes model is essentially the method that Singapore and Vienna use to house 82 percent and 60 percent of their populations, respectively, in attractive, desirable, well-maintained public housing.

A Child Care Tax Credit to Help Working Parents and Businesses

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

With Alabamans missing work for child care purposes at a higher percentage than any other state, House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels proposed legislation to support providers through tax credits and incentives. His bill would allow each provider to receive a credit of up to $1 million with a total cap of $15 million, while each facility would be eligible for a credit of up to $25,000 with a total available credit of $5 million. The funds can be used for building an on-site facility, partnering with local facilities, or providing a stipend for employee childcare expenses.

Impact:

Under the bill, the child care tax credit program is authorized for a four-year period, helping hardworking families in a state where child care issues kept nearly 20 percent of employed Alabamans from going to work in 2021. While the legislation did not advance in 2023, it is achieving notable bipartisan support, which is extremely promising for any progressive policy in a Republican-controlled state. Daniels hopes to reintroduce the bill in the new legislative session and build a bipartisan coalition of stakeholder support through employers, business groups, and community, education, and family empowerment organizations across the state.

Equitable Energy Transition for a Sustainable Future

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Rochester Mayor Kim Norton is putting Rochester on a path to address climate change and make an equitable transition toward a clean energy future. The city’s co-designed task force is engaging with the community to forge the path ahead, and their new Sustainability and Resiliency Commission will prioritize their 107 delineated goals and recommendations. The city council, in agreement with the municipal power agency, agreed to move to 100% renewable energy by 2030 and transition the city and downtown into a geothermal energy district. Additionally, the city has adopted GHG standards, a new development code, a universal transportation plan, and is moving toward required benchmarking for buildings citywide (after a successful voluntary effort of well over 100 buildings).

 

Norton helped secure a federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funding for education and outreach to diverse and underserved community members to ensure their participation in the clean energy future. And have also secured $2 million in federal funds for a district energy project.

Impact:

The city has found that the cost of the energy transition, despite some initial concern over costs, is often cost-neutral and may even be lower due to the federal funding opportunities. Several of the buildings have seen marked decreases in energy use. Norton’s efforts have helped to increase solar uptake by residents, which is expected to increase further with federal funding and ongoing community education efforts.

New Mexico Voting Rights Act and Election Infrastructure Bill

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver championed the New Mexico Voting Rights Act (HB4) and the Election Infrastructure Bill (SB 180) which includes a number of critical provisions to expanding ballot access while enhancing ballot integrity. 

 The Voting Rights Act includes provisions to restore voting rights for formerly incarcerated individuals; strengthen New Mexico’s automatic voter registration system; create a permanent absentee ballot list and expand the use of secure ballot drop-boxes; and most notably, a provision titled the “Native American Voting Rights Act”, the first of its kind in the entire country, which protects ballot access for Indian, Tribal, and Pueblo communities.

 SB 180 brings New Mexico’s election infrastructure, allows candidates to pursue digital petition collection options, creates more layers of protection to ensure the integrity of absentee ballots, and reflects the growing preference for absentee voting. It also creates a more substantive process by which New Mexico’s elections are audited to ensure accurate and reliable results, while also including provisions for local officials to verify and streamline those and related processes.

 

Impact

Both bills were signed into law in 2023 and Secretary of State Toulouse Oliver successfully completed the rule-making process and will phase in provisions of the bills over time. The Secretary of State’s office will use funds from the Help America Vote Act to conduct a study in partnership with the University of New Mexico’s political science department to measure policy impact, voter trends, and voter perceptions of New Mexico’s election practices.

CompassionateUSA

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

As part of the city’s broader violence prevention strategy, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg collaborated with the Alamo Colleges District and the San Antonio Peace Center to launch CompassionateUSA. Compassionate USA is a people-centered campaign with an accompanying micro-course to promote compassion and community healing. These courses help develop foundational skills, a common language, and shared practices for all ages and communities and increase individual and community capacity and resilience on a systemic level. The city made the program freely available to every city, town, and territory across the United States.

 

Impact

With close to 300 participating communities, stories are already coming in from across the U.S. and beyond on how the program is influencing policies to reflect the ethic of reciprocity. For example, teaching hospitals requiring compassionate care training and including the curriculum in pre-K and PhD programs. The campaign portion will continue to run indefinitely as a globally accessible and educated network at no-cost.

Access to Accurate and Timely Election Information 

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Delaware Representative Krista Griffith’s HB 82 which was signed into law in 2023, will ensure voters have access to information concerning polling locations, times, dates, and more. This bill directs the Department of Elections to biennially mail a notice to all registered voters containing pertinent information, including their polling place, the dates and times of the general and any primary elections, registration deadlines, and polling place and early voting policies and procedures.

Prior to the legislation, voters received a card in the mail with their polling location and election districts, but the cards did not give residents the full picture of voting options, such as how to cast ballots during early voting and the criteria for absentee voting.

Impact

This legislation was a direct result of conversations with voters who expressed frustration with not knowing all methods of voting. This legislation will give voters the tools they need to make a plan to vote and will provide new tools to engage voters.

Creating a More Inclusive Redistricting Process

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez reimagining the process for community-led redistricting, creating a more citizen focused and transparent process. There is no more fundamental right than for voters to freely choose who represents them. Gonzalez’s new county redistricting policy and practice in Jefferson County resulted in one of the most inclusive and engaging processes in the state.

The process was guided by three principles: accessibility, inclusion, and legal compliance. Rather than drawing lines in a backroom out of the public eye, the Clerk and Recorder’s office created a policy that created maps with public input, provided virtual and in-person ways for the public to have their voice heard, and ultimately drew the final version of a map in front of a public audience.

Impact

The process resulted in increased public engagement, including reaching over 17,000 people virtually and in person at public meetings at geographically diverse locations that were ADA accessible. The Clerk’s office provided the county commissioners and the public with a preliminary map to consider and revised the map to include feedback from community members. The commissioners then made final edits to the map during a public meeting.

Expanded Protections for Election Workers

2023 Ideas Challenge Entry

California Senator Josh Becker introduced SB 485 aimed at restore voters’ confidence in the electoral process by addressing the surge in aggression from voters who refuse to accept election outcomes. The bill will expand the existing felony of interfering with election officials, voters, and the voting process to protect temporary election workers. Additionally, this legislation will broaden the definition of “voting at an election” to encompass in-person voting at polling places, the office of the election official, satellite locations, and voting by mail.

 Temporary workers, who often play critical roles in election administration, deserve the same level of protection as other election officials. Ensuring their safety while carrying out their duties is crucial to maintaining the efficient functioning of elections. The bill’s broader definition of “voting at an election” is equally significant and encompasses various voting methods, including in-person voting at polling places, the office of the election official, satellite locations, and voting by mail.”

 

Impact

By providing a stronger legal framework to hold those who engage in disruptive and aggressive behavior accountable, victims have more recourse, and individuals who commit such offenses will face appropriate consequences. The bill’s effectiveness will be tracked through the number of reported incidents using data from the Secretary of State’s Election Voter Complaint Portal. Becker is hopeful that the bill will ultimately decrease any violence or aggression directed toward election workers.

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